For those looking for books on the Liberation War in the Amar Ekushey Granthamela, the stall "Shudhu-e Muktijuddher Boi" on the Bangla Academy premises provides a one-stop solution.
"Our aim is to promote and inform more people about the Liberation War, so we took permission from Bangla Academy and set up the stall in 2006," said Maj (retd) Kamrul Hasan Bhuiyan, chairman of the Centre for Bangladesh Liberation War Studies that runs the stall.
It has 37 of its own publications as well as books both in English and Bangla of other publishers.
Though according to rules of the fair, the stall of one publishing house cannot sell books by the others, an exception has been made in this case.
Murshid Anwar, a deputy director of Bangla Academy, said, "The Liberation War is the biggest of all our achievements. We want the young generation to learn correct history and have easy access to those books, so we made an exception."
"Our research centre's aim is not business and our books are not up for sale throughout the year. It is only during this one month that we sell our publications that are based on research on the Liberation War," said Bhuiyan, a freedom fighter.
This year the house brought "Shrestha Shomoyer Kotha" by Bhuiyan and "Bijoyer Pothe" by Lt Gen M Harun-ar-Rashid.
Another stall, "Muktijuddher Boi", run by Abir Ahad, writer-freedom fighter and chairman of Muktijoddha Samannay Parishad, also took permission to sell only the war books. But, children's fairy tales and books of a variety of genres by different publishers are on sale there.
Asked about this, Ahad said, "I have not taken permission (from Bangla Academy) in that sense but selling books on other subjects is necessary to cover the cost of running the stall."
The academy official, Anwar, said, "They will look into the matter."
Meanwhile, the time of the book fair was extended yesterday by half an hour. Today, the fair will open at 3:30pm and continue till 9:00pm.
The fair yesterday saw arrival of 107 books and the publication ceremonies of 14.